Scandinavian producer MTG Studios is shifting from Swedish Dicks to terrorist pricks for its new drama series, an eight-part thriller called Embassy Down.

The series, created by Danish writer Anders Frithiof August (Follow the Money, The Legacy) and produced by Rene Ezra and Tomas Radoor of Nordisk Film (A War, A Hijacking), is a high-concept thriller that kicks off with terrorists storming the U.S. embassy in Copenhagen, leading to a hostage taking with repercussions that ripple across the world.

MTG Studios will produce and co-finance the series with Red Arrow International, the production and sales arm of Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 group. The series will premiere in the Nordics in 2018 on MTG's video streaming service Viaplay, with Red Arrow handling worldwide sales.

MTG kicked off its small-screen production efforts last year with Swedish Dicks, a comedy about two unlicensed, and incompetent, Swedish private investigators trying to make a living in Los Angeles. Peter Stormare and Johan Glans star, with Keanu Reeves as a major supporting character. MTG and partner Lionsgate TV, which holds worldwide rights to Swedish Dicks, recently renewed the show for a second season.

Other titles in MTG's slate include new Nordic drama series Veni Vidi Vici, the noir-flavored Hassel and upcoming kids series The Great Escape.

Across Europe, pay-TV companies are investing in in-house productions, often big-budget English-language series, in an effort to compete for subscribers with expanding online services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.